The present invention relates to a drum-shaped container for a laundry washing and/or drying machine, comprising a cylindrical sheet metal envelope and gables also made of sheet metal and fastened thereto, at least one of said gables being provided with a centrally disposed rotative shaft for the container or with a support for such rotative shaft.
A washing or drying machine for treatment of textiles often is designed to support the textiles in an inner drum which is enclosed in and rotatably supported by an outer drum. The washing machine can be designed to be loaded via a door provided in the periphery of the inner drum and via a corresponding opening provided in the outer drum which during operation of the machine is covered by an outer machine lid. In another common type of washing machine loading takes place via corresponding openings in one gable of the inner and outer drum, respectively. Closing of the openings can take place in different ways. For example, a door can be provided to close the opening in the inner drum. In another embodiment the opening in the inner drum is connected to the opening in the outer drum via a bellows gasket and the opening in the outer drum is in turn closable by means of an outer machine lid.
In an embodiment. where loading takes place via openings in the drum periphery, referred to as a top loaded machine, the inner drum is journalled at both gables whereas in an embodiment wherein loading takes place via gable openings, referred to as a front loaded machine, the rotatable shaft is journalled at one end only. A problem, in particular observed in a front loaded machine, occurs in connection with the construction of the shaft and the shaft support for the inner drum. In order to absorbe the great forces arising when the inner drum and its load is driven up into centrifugal speed the gable with the drum shaft of the inner drum must be given a design of particular strength. This is also true for the outer drum with its shaft support.
An example of a common design of the inner drum and outer drum with its drum support for a laundry washing machine is given in the patent document U.S. Pat. No. 2,984,094. The document shows in FIG. 2 one gable of the outer drum comprising two conical sheet metal gables joined at there periphery and facing each other so as to diverge towards their central parts where they form a shaft support. Another example is given in the patent document U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,117 which in FIG. 1 clearly shows the strong construction of the gable of the inner drum provided with the shaft and the equally strong shaft support connected to the corresponding gable of the outer drum.
The prior art discloses solutions wherein with straight single gables a considerably greater thickness of sheet metal has to be used than required for the remaining tasks of the inner and the outer drum, namely the supporting of the laundry and of the wash liquor, respectively. The prior art also discloses solutions wherein by using double sheet metal gables of different conical shapes it has been possible to reduce the sheet metal thickness and hence weight and cost.
The object of the invention is to suggest a solution with a single sheet metal gable construction for both inner and outer drum without the thickness of the sheet metal reaching disproportionately heavy levels. The object is achieved in a drum-shaped container for a laundry washing and/or drying machine having the characterizing features indicated in the appending claims.